FSU, Auburn would face different challenges reaching title game under new College Football Playoff

January 7, 2014|By Matt Murschel, Orlando Sentinel

PASADENA, Calif. — Would Florida State and Auburn be facing off for a national title under the new College Football Playoff system?

The Seminoles and Tigers were the clear picks to play in final BCS National Championship Game Monday night, but they would have faced a tougher path to the national title next year.

Under the new postseason model, the top four teams in the country will face off in two national semifinal games set to kick off on New Year's Day. Those matchups will be hosted at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and the other will be played at the Rose Bowl.

The winners will face off in the national championship game on Jan. 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Coaches are already concerned about to get their teams ready not only for a conference championship game in most cases, but a semifinal game followed by a national title game 10 days later.

"It will be a very tough thing because the mental capacity to get up that many times, but it's what we'll have to do, and kids will adjust and they'll adapt," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. "It's going to be a challenge. It's going to be that much harder to get to where you want to go, that's for sure."

Fisher went on to explain his graduate assistants would spend the weeks leading up to the semifinal games breaking down all possible opponents the Seminoles could face if they won their first game and advanced to the championship.

"Those guys prepare for the next game just like our GAs are breaking down the future opponents two and three and four weeks ahead of time and we keep a running tab and see how they change," Fisher said. "So we would do it just like the regular season, and that's where your infrastructure, your organization, have enough people to be able to do that and that's what you would do."

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn wasn't as concerned about the implications of the new postseason and the challenges it could present.

"I really don't think about tomorrow, much less a year from now," said Malzahn. "But you just try to keep it as game like as possible. I think you stay in a routine and you just take it week by week."

Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive is optimistic his league can thrive just as much under the playoff as it did winning seven consecutive BCS title games entering Monday night's game.

"Going back to 2004, I began talking about moving to four teams [playoff]," Slive said. "Now, who was to know that we were going to have seven in a row and possibly eight.

"But even with that over time we're better served over time to put four places rather than two places."

Bill Hancock, executive director of both the BCS and the new College Football Playoff, told reporters Monday that the organization will work to protect the top seed in the new four-team model. He said the group will likely place the No. 1 team into a semi-final location that is closest to its fan base.

For instance, if the playoff had started this season, Florida State would have played its semifinal game against either Michigan State or Stanford in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. That would have provided the bowl site as well as the school more opportunities to sell tickets.

That would have sent No. 2 Auburn and No. 3 Alabama to the Rose Bowl even though it would have meant a rematch of an earlier meeting between the two schools. Hancock believes the new selection committee will look to avoid rematches, but will have to do whatever it takes to maintain the integrity of the playoff bracket.